Good morning, search marketers, nope, it's not Groundhog Day!
Google has tweeted that the News indexing bug has been resolved. It may take a day or so for everything to get reindexed — fingers crossed that, this time, the bug is gone for good.
That's not the only thing Google announced: AMP pages can now be delivered with their original URLs. This addresses one of the biggest criticisms of the initiative, enabling publishers to display their domain name in the URL bar, along with removing the unsightly AMP "grey bar," and possibly simplifying analytics. So far, this solution is only available for Chrome 73 or higher and publishers will need to create a Signed Exchange to take advantage of the option.
Here's something it has yet to announce: Google Local Guide Mike Blumenthal has reported that short names and URLs are coming to Google My Business listings. They can be placed on materials like business cards or flyers and are meant to make Google My Business profiles, reviews, and contact info more accessible. The URL format will be "g.page/[yourcustomname]" with a five-character minimum. This feature is still rolling out and, when it's done, it'll be available to verified businesses.
Yoast, one of the most popular WordPress SEO plugins, has released its 11.0 update featuring a rewritten Schema implementation. This makes it easier for publishers to use Schema markup and for search engines to make sense of it. You won't see any SEO bumps from it, but using it can mean more accurate info on Google Knowledge Panels, support for Pinterest's Rich Pins, as well as increased odds of appearing in Google News listings and carousels, product and local listing snippets (if you use the associated Yoast or WooCommerce plugins).
For useful insights on what true localization means, a thought-provoking take on what's next for Google after Article 11, and your daily search shorts, just keep enjoying this newsletter.
George Nguyen,
Associate Editor
